Dental caries occur on all surfaces of teeth, and carious lesions can, and do, form between teeth in areas that are inaccessible directly for treatment; these are termed “interproximal” caries or carious lesions. Because these carious lesions are between the teeth, access generally requires the physical removal, with a dental drill, of sound tooth structure over and/or proximate the lesion so as to, in turn, permit physical removal of the decay.
Carious bacteria can be entombed, or sealed, within conventional acrylic dental resins to thereby cause the death of the bacteria by isolating it from the source of its needed nutrients, i.e., food debris. But access to the carious lesion, to permit the application of such a seal, typically also requires the physical destruction of sound tooth structure.
Alternatively, carious bacteria can be entombed within deposits of laser-ablated tooth enamel and dentin. While any removal of sound tooth structure will usually be undesirable, enamel and dentin damaged by ablation can often be repaired by remineralization, through topical fluoride treatments. As yet another technique, carious bacteria can be killed by exposure to sufficient doses of microwave energy, to which tooth enamel is translucent. Laser beam radiation is also effective for killing carious bacteria directly.